Samsung Youm Brand Dreams Up Ideas for Bendable Displays

Youm

While Samsung Display, a Samsung-created entity, is responsible for the bendable organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens, they'll be marketed under the new brand Youm.

Plastic Smartphone Screens

Brian Berkeley, vice president of the Samsung San Jose Display Lab, said his team had figured out how to make a "high-resolution display on extremely thin plastic, instead of glass, so it won't break, even if it's dropped."

The Magic of OLEDs

The plastic displays are OLEDs, which Berkeley said deliver the best quality viewing, "with much deeper blacks and more vivid colors." They're thin and lightweight, and because they emit their own light, they don't need a backlight.

Skinny

No doubt about it, they are thin …

Bendy

… and they are bendable.

Did We Mention Bendable?

The plastic screens seem to have the flexibility of a strip of photo negatives. While they bend forward and backward, folding appears not to be an option.

Extra Real Estate

Berkeley smiled and paused for a moment, as though at the gravity of what he was about to show off—a device with a screen that spilled down over its sides.

Spillover

And here is the view of the device from the side.

Galaxy S III, in Book Format?

Samsung's Woo rolled a short film that included two more ideas for possible applications for the bendable screen technology. A first idea was somewhat book-like, behaving like a smartphone when closed and a tablet when open. (What was that we said about the plastic being unable to bend?)

Taking a Closer Look

A character in the film, impressed, takes a closer look.

Screen on Demand

A second prototype idea was roughly the shape and size of a harmonica, with a hidden—and rather large—plastic screen that extended with the touch of a button. Impressive, indeed.